When He Got Mad
by dart53
Summary: Garrison could yell, just like anyone else, but when he got mad, he got quiet.


The Warden could get loud just like anybody else. It wasn't really part of his nature but he'd learned it at West Point when they were teaching him to be an officer. And he'd had more than enough practice at it with them once the group was formed. Sometimes a shout of 'Knock it off!' was just the thing to keep a fist from flying. But when he really got mad he got quiet. And the madder he was the quieter he got. Right now he was very quiet. The man he was talking to had to lean in to catch what he was saying. And even though it was all going on in German and Goniff couldn't understand a word of it, the fact that he could barely hear Garrison's voice combined with the look on his face made the hair on the back of the little burglar's neck stand up and his skin crawl a little bit.

They'd split up on the job. Sometimes they did that. And it seemed whenever they did there was trouble. This time it was Actor. He'd gone missing during his part of the job and, after seeing the information they'd been sent for safely on its way back to England like they had to, they'd spent two days tracking him down. They knew from the underground that he'd been picked up by the Germans and they knew where the Germans usually took their prisoners but when they got inside Actor wasn't there.

The runes on Garrison's collar didn't impress anyone; they were wearing them too, and this time his rank wasn't high enough to demand anything from anyone. They cased the place that night and then went back and broke in well before dawn and rifled through records until they found the information the Lieutenant needed. It wasn't good. The Italian con man had collapsed during interrogation earlier that day, just four hours before they got there the first time. He'd been transported to a local hospital. From the looks of the report the Germans weren't expecting to get him back.

It looked to Casino like the Warden was swiping documents at random but when they got back to the safe house and he laid them out they all had the same guys signature. Garrison remembered his doodling when Clarence went missing and a skeptical Goniff was set the task of learning to copy that signature. After two or three hours he had it almost perfect and Garrison, courtesy of their contact, had a document ready for him to sign.

The little burglar chewed at his thumbnail and then shot an uneasy glance up at their commander. "What if I muck it up?"

"You won't." The Warden fanned out the papers he had in his hand and held them up. "And if you do I've got back ups."

But the Lieutenant's faith in him was well place; Goniff got it right the very first time.

Garrison bruised and bloodied up his arm enough to get inside the hospital to check the lay out. They went back in late that night and looked through the charts until they found the one they thought was Actor's. He sent the rest of them out to wait in the car they'd left on a side street while he went down to the room listed on the records to make sure it was the right one.

"You find him?" Chief asked. The grim look on the Warden's face told him he had.

"'Ow bad?"

Garrison set his jaw. "I don't know. I got caught just as I found the room."

The other three men in the car shared a long look. If the Warden had been picked up or killed they would have been well and truly screwed.

"But you'r sure 'ee's in there?"

"He's there."

"Alright," Casino shifted in the seat so that he was facing their commander. "How'r we gonna do this with only you speakin' German?"

The staff car pulled to a stop directly in front of the hospital. It was an impressive vehicle, sleek and powerful and polished to perfection. Chief rolled out and opened the door for Garrison. The Warden stepped out of the car and adjusted his cap and then pulled on the cuffs of the uniform to straighten the sleeves. He made a crisp turn and headed up the steps. Casino and Goniff were a step behind and just off either shoulder, Chief brought up the rear. An attendant at the top of the stairs acted as doorman and they moved through without a backwards glance.

The three cons worried about their ability to pull this off without the imposing figure of their con man. But there was something in Garrison's manner this time, arrogance and authority seemed to come off him in waves.

Hospital security crumbled in the face of four SS officers. They were immediately escorted to the medical director's office. When Garrison slapped the orders releasing Actor to them down on the desk the director cringed at the hollow sound that reverberated around the office. The doctor's fingers trembled when he took the form up and he squinted through wire-rimmed glasses to scrutinize the forged signature. When he looked up he hunched his shoulders and turned his head and smiled and looked just like a whipped dog that was trying to get back into its master's good graces. If he'd had a tail it would have been thumping the floor.

" _I will just call down to the ward and have him made ready for_ …"

Garrison reached across the desk and pushed the receiver back in its place and pinned the doctor's hand where it was. " _You will take us to him. Now!_ " The man blanched and tried to pull away but he was caught and easily pulled out of his chair and towed along by the Warden when he turned for the door.

The group, with Garrison and the director in the lead, moved down the main hall and turned right down another, they made a left at the end of that one and kept going. The further they got from the director's office the more dilapidated the building got. By the time they pulled up in front of the door the walls were gray and the tiles on the floor were cracked and curling up. There was an odor of mold, unwashed bodies and stale urine. Only two of the overhead lights worked and there was a sound coming from the other side of the door that had Goniff quaking in his fine tall boots and wishing he could hook his finger in the tall collar to loosen it up a bit.

The Warden waited a moment for the director to open the door and when the man hesitated he reached up and propelled him forward. The three followed and gathered just inside the open door shocked by the conditions and unsure what to do next. Their hesitation was brief: when their commander moved out they were only a half step behind him. Garrison headed for the far corner of the ward with the director in tow. It was obvious by the patient's size the man in the bed was their con man.

" _Can he stand?"_

" _I - I don't know."_

It was obvious that his 'questioning' had taken the form of a beating. His face was bruised and swollen. The gown he wore was poorly tied and pulled open revealing bruises that extended to the top of his shoulder and back. Very little effort seemed to have gone into his care. There was a laceration in his hair and the hair around it was still matted to the side of his head. A fine crust of blood remained in the creases of skin along the front of his ear, near his eye, nose and mouth and a track of it ran along his jaw and down his neck. His mouth and the corner of the right eye seemed to be twisted, his jaw jutting out at an odd angle and there was a growing stain of spittle on the pillow under his chin. Actor was curled onto his side, tangled in sheets that were dirty and gray like the surroundings. His right arm was pulled up tight to his body, the elbow and wrist bent and rigid, the hand straining downwards with straightened fingers pressed into his palm. His right leg appeared to be drawn up too.

Garrison stepped to the bed and turned Actor onto his back. The con man's arm remained curled tight against is chest but his long legs moved freely enough.

The Warden turned on the cringing director. Even though the others couldn't understand, even though they could barely hear him they could tell he was reading the man the riot act…then he was giving him his orders. Nodding, the man bowed and scraped his way out of the room.

All of them moved towards the bed but Garrison overruled their instincts to help with a curt shake of his head. It was a good thing he did too as the door opened again almost immediately and three orderlies were led back inside by the director. The man approached Garrison, a grimace -like smile on his face, but the Warden cut him off as soon as he opened his mouth by turning on his heel and leading his team back out into the hall. They all stood with their backs to the wall silently staring at the door to the ward.

When the door opened again less than ten minutes later the director was, himself, propelling the wheelchair they'd loaded Actor into. Over the course of their working together they'd seen Actor in all kinds of disguises but the man in the chair in front of them was barely recognizable as their suave Italian confidence man. The three orderlies had made a pass at cleaning him up. The Italian con man wore a clean T-shirt and drawstring pants, his feet were bare, they'd thrown a tattered robe around his shoulders. Actor was slump down in the chair, leaning towards his ruined arm. He didn't react to his surroundings and there was a little dribble of spit already working its way down through the stubble on his chin.

The doctor's simpering smile faded out when Garrison made a quick sharp gesture down the hall. The man tried to straighten up and move off in a dignified manner but it didn't last. By the time they'd reached the first turn he was hunched over the handles of the wheelchair, every few moments he'd throw a furtive glance back at the Warden and he was taking little running steps to try and get away from him.

When they reached the director's office again Garrison stopped the doctor's flight with a sharp command. When the man turned, confused as to what was expected of him, he got gloved fingers snapped under his nose and a stiff handed wave to the desk in his office. The Warden marched in on his heels and snatched a pen off his desk and presented it to him. He hastily took it up and signed the documents they'd left lying on his desktop. Garrison grabbed them out of his hand and jammed them into his pocket as he turned on his heel and stalked back out into the hall.

If the doctor thought he was finally off the hook he was wrong. The Warden pinned him with a withering glare until he edged back out into the hall and meekly took up his position in back of Actor's wheelchair and they continued their march to the large front doors of the facility.

Chief quickly scanned the entrance to the hospital when they pushed out through the doors. He headed for the car and put it reverse as the others followed the wheelchair down the ramp that had been built in along the left-hand side of the steps. When the car came to a halt in front of them the Warden stared the director into continuing his duties as Actor's attendant until he and the other orderlies had him in the back seat leaning against the carefully closed door.

Casino took the front seat next to Chief and after a barely perceptible nod from Garrison Goniff trotted around the car and climbed in next to Actor. The Warden had another quick word with the doctor before he did a crisp about-face and stepped around the car to get in next to Goniff. As soon as the door slammed Chief eased the car away from the steps. When he glanced in the rear view mirror he saw one of the orderlies slide the wheelchair up behind him and another one help the administrator sit down in it.

"Blimey!" Goniff tugged the robe that had been thrown around Actor's shoulders closed across his chest as he swiveled his head to stare at their commander. "What d'you tell that bloke anyway?" And the little man nearly jumped into Garrison's lap when it was the con man that answered him.

"He told him I was one of his officers working undercover and if I failed to make a full recovery after their scandalous treatment of my injuries he was going come back and personally dislocate every joint in his body."

Chief pulled off to the side of the road and shifted into neutral so he could turn to stare at the con man along with Casino. Actor pulled the sleeve of the robe around and wiped his mouth and chin. He straightened in the seat with a groan and rotated his shoulders and neck and flexed the fingers of his right hand. Then he massaged the right side of his face with long fingers that were once again strong and nimble.

Garrison shifted around so his back rested in the corner of the seat, he rubbed his hand over his face and left his cap cocked back on the back of his head. He took a deep breath and let it out as he looked at his second in command. "God, I'm glad that was a con."

Actor smiled over Goniff's head at the Lieutenant. "One of my better ones, wouldn't you agree?" The Italian ran his fingers through his hair and he winced at the scab on the side of his head. He prodded the sore muscles on the side of his face with a finger. "But I believe if you had been delayed much longer that look might have become permanent."

"Jeeze! If I was in the back seat a this car I'd show you permanent!" Casino managed to choke out…after that he was speechless.

Chief just put the car in gear again and pulled out onto the road and headed for the safe house.


End file.
